Economists urge gov’t to increase number of Covid-19 relief beneficiaries

Government has been urged to reconsider the target groups of the Covid-19 relief cash tokens.

Last month, at least 500,000 homes were earmarked to benefit from the government stimulus for Covid-19 which is meant to sustain the vulnerable groups living in urban areas.

Economist and policy analyst Ramathan Ggoobi said that the number of households earmarked is too little.

Ggoobi said with Ugandans counting at least 15 days since the lockdown was instituted, some individuals who were not living hand to mouth before, are now vulnerable and government needs to support them as well.

"500,000 is quite a big number of households if we were talking about Kampala metropolitan only. If we are looking at the whole country, it's going to be a challenge," Ggoobi said.

“I think the government needs to reconsider its target because many people are vulnerable now.”

Ggoobi said that the second lockdown came at a time when many households were still trying to heal from the first lockdown that was instituted in 2020, and many of such households are now vulnerable.

He said that government should come up with a key intervention that could drive the economy even after the lockdown.

"SMEs are the nucleus of our economies. We advised the government to institute an SME recovery fund but unfortunately, this wasn't budgeted for," he said.